Review: A Bell Rings by Alexa Milne

Sometimes you only need to believe.

Raziel Slade and Jack Hastings have been best friends since Raz saved Jack’s life twelve years ago. Only Jack doesn’t remember Raz at all, and he certainly doesn’t remember falling in love with him. Now that Jack’s moved in with his university housemates, explicit dreams begin of a blue-eyed male stranger. Needing a new flatmate after his best friend moves out, Jack is introduced to Raziel Slade who has extraordinary blue eyes. Jack has no idea how to cope with his attraction to the man.

Raziel Slade has a secret – he used to be an angel. He fell in love with Jack Hastings and happily became human, but the angels aren’t prepared to let him go and steal him back. All Raz wants to do is return to his lover any way he can.

When a film brings back Jack’s memories, will he feel the same as he did when he finds out what Raz gave up for him? And are the angels finally ready to let Raziel, the Keeper of Secrets, go?

Publisher's Note: This book is a sequel to Not Every Time.


Jack always believed himself straight, and is struggling with his attraction to his new roommate Raziel. Until want and need push him to make his move and life as Jack knows it suddenly changes in unexpected ways.

I like Angel stories. I find them pretty fascinating. It’s fun to see how many different ways an Angel can be created from the same list from history/mythology.


This did not work for me at all. While the premise was sound, the execution was all over the place. I felt lost, as lost as Jack. I really had no clue what was happening, and almost missed key parts of the plot, due to the sentence structure. I didn’t really like the set up, and found the world building to be lacking. I wanted something a little more from the beginning.

Over the last couple of years, I have come to realise I have strong feelings about characters who believe they are straight. It’s a fairly common plot device, and it’s becoming harder and harder for me to be convinced. The way this story was set up, and the reveal sort of explains why Jack believes this, but I didn’t like it. I would have preferred he thought he was bi and had never acted on his feelings with men.

The scene where Jack’s memory comes back was too rushed, with no real set up, and the scene right after that, well, they were suddenly in bed together. Not believable either. But hey, this is a fantasy story, and angel’s aren’t real either, so I should probably just get over it.

I think with some practice, this author could write a decent story. I can’t say this was a compelling, or very memorable story, but I wouldn’t discount more from Alexa in the future.


A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a review.



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